Mike Pence Staffer Tests Positive for Coronavirus

This evening we were notified that a member of the Office of the Vice President tested positive for the Coronavirus,” Pence’s spokeswoman Katie Miller told reporters on Friday evening.

Trump put Pence in charge of the administration’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak at the end of February, and both have stood close to each other during daily press briefings at the White House all this week.

This is at least the third time there has been a scare about the possibility that Pence, 60, or Trump, 73, might have been exposed to the virus that tends to be lethal for the elderly. Previously, they had both been in contact with members of Congress who had attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last month, where one prominent donor from New York tested positive. 

Last week, a staffer for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also tested positive for the coronavirus, after he had taken pictures with Trump at his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago during a working visit to the US. Bolsonaro himself has vocally denied reports that he might have been infected himself.